This seems like the first good news in a while: a government agency admitting that most opioid overdoses are from illicit fentanyl. The report also documents the downsides of non-opioid medications and highlights the predicament of pain patients.

This document is so long and detailed that I spent hours picking it over to find the critical pieces and add my own commentary. It’s far from perfect, but still a welcome change from the usual PROPaganda – and I choose to celebrate.

Below is the second part, covering more about opioid medication with all its “risk” and then the final, most significant section, covering the problems and errors of the CDC Opioid Prescribing Guidelines:

Another outstanding post with excellent analysis by Zyp! Should be required reading for everyone involved in prescribing policies, & especially for all the media morons who’ve spread the lies so effectively.

Over the past 10 to 15 years, attitudes towards opioid use for pain have shifted dramatically. In the 1990s and early 2000s, pain relief was front and center on the newsstands and in medical literature.

During that time, compassion for people in pain increased and permeated our culture and opioids became standard therapy for chronic pain, because few affordable and effective treatment alternatives existed.